There are a lot of factors to take into consideration when creating a good logo. Colours, shapes target audience, competitors, message and meaning. Here are a few examples I found of each.
McDonalds logos one of the most iconic of all, regardless of age, gender or ethnicity this worldwide brand is instantly recognisable. Which it simply represents the M at the beginning of the word, which is actually originally taken from the original statement “golden arches”. The restaurant when first opened, had two large yellow arches on either side to make the building stand out:
When the logo was redesigned in 1962 they decided to design the logo as if someone was standing at an angle to the restaurant looking at it. As yellow has connotations of happiness, it would appeal to people passing by as a happy well-presented restaurant. It’s simplicity is key to making it instantly recognisable, containing no words, and language can understand what the logo is and what it stands for.
To fit in with a younger, a more social demographic, McDonalds rebranded itself to Macca’s in Australia, Macca’s is Australian slang for the restaurant and they picked up on this and decided to take advantage of this in their rebrand. The company’s chief marketing officer in Australia said “What better way to show Aussies how proud we are to be a part of the Australian community than change our store signs to the name the community has given us?”.
Coca-Cola logo is very iconic, again is a worldwide brand that was originally, in 1886, branded as an ‘intellectual drink’ that contained coca plant extracts to cure all nervous affections. The logo scroll typeface was based upon the handwriting of the pharmacist who created the drink. You can see both his and his handwriting in this image:
It is also worth noting that coca-cola is also responsible for the santa claus we all love and recognise today, in 1920 , they created a campaign where santa was shown as over-weight with a large white beard, this became the norm decades to come. The idea behind coke now is more about the experience of sharing happiness and positivity rather than enjoying a drink, and this can be seen in many of coca-cola’s marketing campaigns.
What’s interesting is that the companies that have been most successful all play on the ideology of the american dream. They all, In some capacity like to link their products to the classic american lifestyle, and you can actually see evidence of this in a lot of their products and their marketing campaigns. McDonalds have gone all out and even created a “tastes of america” menu featuring the burgers of different states:
Coca Cola have played on the american dream with almost every single advertisement they have ever produced, below is an image of a complication of all the different adverts they’ve made. It features happy soldiers, nice cars, beautiful people, american inventions such as the lightbulb, landing on the moon and fashion. All about a time when the people has ultimate trust in their governments, corporations and science in comparison to today where people are much less trusting of these things than they used to be.
Cadillac has a very interesting logo, one that isn’t as instantly recognisable but is probably seen as more luxurious brand.
The logo has laurel wreaths around a crest, the wreath is something that can be related to luxury right back to about 3BC when they were handed out in Greece to the winners in the ancient olympics. LaMothe Cadillac was the person who founded cadillac in 1701, and used his family crest in the logo.
The target audience of Cadillac is primarily middle aged businessmen, and they also like to play on the ‘american dream’ you can see it in their modern advertisement for the Cadillac ELR:
This very carefully constructed advert appeals directly to the upper-working class, displaying things like the pool, kids, new technology, nice home, attractive wife, nice clothes and nice car. The character questions consumerism, then provides the answer by stating “As for all thew stuff, thats the upside of only taking two weeks off in August”. He basically states that hard work pays off and then makes examples of wealth american businessmen, discusses the landing on the moon and then states “were the only ones going back up there”. This advert goes a long way to promote the american dream in an age where the american dream isn’t such a thing anymore, by talking about and showing luxury items and thing connected to america. You can watch the advert here;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGJSI48gkFc
On the other end of the scale are some really poorly designed logos, the biggest ‘fail’ of all time is the one created for the 2012 London Olympics.
It was called racist by Iran, and they threatened to withdraw from the games because of it. It can be see to be a rude act by Lisa Simpson on a man. While unique this logo had a massive backlash within the media, as designers across Britain believed they could have done better. The typeface was seen as looking very greek and unprofessional.
Pepsi rebranding took their logo and changed the direct on the curves in it. The upwards strokes could almost be seen as a smile, or the happiness that would occur when drinking pepsi. It is also very similar to the logo used to promote the Obama campaign, the light at the end of the tunnel/sun above the horizon means a new, brighter day. for look. You can see the old, new and Obama logo here:
This was also seen as a clumsy rebranding though as with a small addition to the logo, it looked like a fat man with shirt too small for his stomach.
References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Arches
http://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en/our_story/our_history.html
http://www.burgerbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/McD_Aussie_Tastes-of-America.jpg
http://envisioningtheamericandream.com/
https://bandt-au.s3.amazonaws.com/information/uploads/2014/08/JPcocacola.jpg?870196
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgZUaLTSAQI
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laurel_wreath
http://www.luxurydaily.com/cadillac-targets-business-minded-consumers-via-mobile-ads/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/26/this-commercial-sums-up-e_n_4859040.html
http://emagining.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/pepsi-farcical.jpg
http://www.billjacobscadillac.com/blog/history-of-the-cadillac-logo-what-does-it-stand-for/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/26/this-commercial-sums-up-e_n_4859040.html
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